Thanks to John Kelleher[1] who alerted us to the fact that many of the oil companies (that includes both domestic heating oil and other industrial oils) are linked together. Basically, one big company owns many of the others, so many are part of the same larger group. There's a less independent "choice" than consumers might have hoped for.

The biggest consolidating agent is GB Oils, although the info on their website is pretty minimal. GB Oils is based in Warrington, and is the largest single oil-distribution company in Great Britain. It is also a division of a massive services conglomerate, the DCC group (based in Dublin, but operating in at least 4 countries: UK, Ireland, Austria and Denmark). Within the British Isles but outside of England and Wales, GB Oils operates as Emo Oil (Ireland, north and south) and
Scottish Fuels. GB (Emo) Oils has expanded rapidly in recent years,
executing many take-overs of smaller oil distributors.

What's worse, a lot of the seemingly independently price-comparison websites are not that independent at all:
See this list here and which website is owned by which company; most of them ultimately owned by DCC.
Quite depressing stuff, really, if you wanted a truly independent search engine! Another supposedly impartial fuel search engine that we know about is Fuel Oil Direct: their site is funded by companies paying to list with them, but they are still a DCC company.

At least now we know why so many companies readily agree to price match with their so-called competitors -- they may not really be competitors at all!

16 Comments

Well there was a time when prices of home heating oil were increasing like anything so people considered buying Cheapest Heating Oil for saving some money. Now it's good to hear the prices are coming down.

Just so you are all aware GB Oils (DCC) are currently undergoing a review of their business and currently making mass redundancies across the North West and North East.

A major part of this has resulted in a rebranding exercise. Following in depth consultation they have quickly realised that now they can no longer hide behind their individual brand and they have to advise customers they belong to the GB brand which resulted from the OFT's findings. Now for the best bit..... Due to the negative press associated with GB Oils/DCC there is going to be a massive rebranding project and all companies will be trading under GULF (another acquisition). Everyone can associate with Gulf as a long standing brand - HOW LONG BEFORE THEY TRASH THE GULF REPUTATION. Be aware of who you are dealing with when receiving quotes.

I recently left GB Oils - I couldn't ethically justify working there, the price fixing and treatment of customers (and staff) is terrible. People will freeze to death because they can't afford the inflated prices GB charge, apparantly some redundancies of staff was due to a downturn in trade this year (hot April.spring etc) They have also have sought some forecasting for the coming winter and say we are in for a mild one - how wrong could they be! CHeck out the long range and most experts will agree that due to La Nina and low sun spot activity its gonna be another cold one, GB could cope with demand last year, less staff for this year can only mean they will fail to deliver vital supplies to domestics and farmers again in isolated areas.

Having worked for GB fuels for a number of years I couldnt believe it took people quite so long to work out what was going on. However people still do not realise the half of it and even the OFT have been seriously mislead by their pricing techniques. So heres how it works we all have access to all Brands orders/quotes Mrs Smith calls in and asks for a price on heating fuel upon checking her post code we check to see if she is a live customer with any other brand a live domestic customer is if they have ordered in 12 months, an agricultural customer is 9 months and commercial 6 months. So assuming Mrs Smith has ordered with lets say Pearts one of the newer aquisitions we check to see if there is a price on that account and if not we artificially inflate the price so if she phones them it looks like she is getting a better price. If a price has already been entered we would go in just slightly higer as not to look to expensive. Personally Im glad to be out of it the company is a sham. So to anyone with an hour to spare and you have a live account with any brand get your price and then call other brands in that area and I guarantee you will not get a cheaper price -SCAM

I find it a little worrying that there are more comparison sited popping up - I always check these prices but still ring all the locals AND always get a better price than on-line (and some cannot even supply to our postcode)! It also helps that I am purchasing on behalf of 300 members to our group monthly and in quantities over 30000Ltrs at a time, great for me and our members as we average around 5p per litre discount

Fuel Tool is a new company born out of the heating oil crisis during the winter of 2010. As a home heating oil purchaser and owner of a web design company, we decided that local smaller oil suppliers needed a voice. So we created a platform from which they could be heard. www.fueltool.co.uk was launched on March 17, 2011. Fuel Tool is independent and neither owned or affiliated with any oil distributor or supplier. Our aim is simple. To provide members of the public with a one stop shop for cheap oil. You enter the quantity of oil you need along with your postcode and we search local suppliers in your area. What Fuel Tool hopes to achieve is to provide a service which benefits both customers and suppliers alike. We hope you will visit Fuel Tool in the near future and tell you friends about it too. All feedback is welcome.

I've heard about Fuel Tool. They are very much like other comparison sites, yet they want it to be anonymous so you only get the best price. They've got a rating system to differentiate the suppliers. I hear they cover 1.4 million UK postcodes. That is more than any other comparison website.

I tried them at the end of August this year and they were a good few pence cheaper than I could find elsewhere. The order was satisfied through a company based in Scotland I believe (I'm in Suffolk) and they took credit cards with no surcharge. I like how Fuel Tool tell you what the suppliers terms are in this respect before you choose which deal you want. Delivery was on time and although they couldn't put in as much as was ordered I was promptly refunded the difference. I'll certainly be checking them for a quote next time (but will naturally look around just to be sure).

I'm not a supplier. Cheapest Oil just surveys prices before putting you directly through to the distributor. The site is paid for by ads and sales of oil tank monitors so it is important to me to get as many people on the site as possible and the best way I can do that is to have content you want to keep coming back to.

For all of Ireland, I have quotes from around 40 to 50 oil distributors many of whom are now working with the site as best they can as they can see the massive difference to their website visitor numbers (and presumably orders). However, it has been much more difficult to get distributors in England, Scotland and Wales listed despite the fact that those that do receive thousands of visitors from us.

So if you know any, point them to cheapestoil.org for information on how to get featured (all completely free).

I have found cheapestoil to be a really useful site as it shows the prices of heating all companies and their best price they have available on the day. All this is shown on one screen with the link through to the relevant company and the price they quoted in my area (LN7)there are only 2 companies submitting their prices: celticfueloils and fuelfighter, but it would be great to see the likes of Boilerjuice, whichoilsupplier and the rest putting forward their prices and save us the time of having to get quotes from multiple sites. Come on heating oil companies - put your prices in one place and lets see who is really the cheapest!

this explains the problems which I have had with Brogan Fuels recently. I have used them without a problem for ten years. When I tried to order some domestic fuel at the end of November ( before the snow crisis had materalised ) they were unable to deliver until 17th Dec and refused to give me even a guide price. They were always able to give me a price before and they were able to deliver usually within three days. I tried a few of the other names which you have mentioned not realising that they were part of the same group. They were equally unhelpful. I did manage to get a supply in early december from a local company, Carnagie Fuels, who were able to deliver within three days and at a reasonable price.It looks as if Brogans standards are now very different to what they were before being taken over. I for one will not be going back to Brogans. I know I am not the only one which they have shafted during the last month or so.

Your coments are an exact mirror, almost to the day with my experience with brogans. Ordered 1st dec /del. 24dec no price given that far in advance ended up paying 71pence per litre!!!! Worse still no bill sent till 14 th jan must pay by 15 th to get discount .I will be contacting Watchdog to set Anne onto them!! (please do the same)

I, with 30 yrs in the industry now own boilerjuice.co, directoil.co, heatingfuels.co, heatingoils.co, heating-oils.co.uk, oildistributor.co, oildistributor.co.uk, oilsupplier.co and totaloils.co. All sites currently mirror the Goff site which I have been designing over the last 12 years as a hobby and at times it shows.

I too am incensed by the lack of transparency of the Boilerjuice.co.uk or com sites and other sites with permanent ownership links to certain distributorships. This pushes prices up and smells of price rigging. No accusations here but I have been too long in the business not too smell rats and big ones at that.

My sites will all be the same and compete on the original basis of boilerjuice and remain independent. I first thought of the idea of on line ordering and quotes over 14 years ago with Goff but then I moved to the USA. I'm back and gonna clean up this mess with some help I hop[e.

I note that you link to our post on the WhichOilSupplier blog and this seems to be a source for your article. However, you do not make it clear that WhichOilSupplier is a completely independent heating oil comparison site. Mark Armstrong and Chris Bale run this site and our backgrounds are in environmental consultancy and ecommerce marketing. I hope you approve this comment so that the article reads accurately. Thank you, Chris.